April 1937

1937

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April 26, 1937: More than 1,600 people killed by aerial bombardment of Guernica in Spain.

The following events occurred in April 1937:

April 1, 1937 (Thursday)

• The Government of India Act 1935 came into effect, reorganizing the colonial structure of British India. Burma was made a Crown colony of the United Kingdom, separate from the rest of British India, with Ba Maw as the first Premier and Sir Archibald Cochrane continuing as Governor.
• The Act provided for six of British India's 11 provinces to have their own legislative bodies. Bicameral parliaments and a local prime minister began operation in the Bombay State (Prime Minister Dhanjishah Cooper and a capital at Bombay, now Mumbai); the Province of Madras (Prime Minister Kurma Venkata Reddi Naidu with a capital at Madras, now Chennai); the Province of Bengal (Prime Minister Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq with a capital at Calcutta, now Kolkata); Bihar Province (Premier Mohammad Yunus, with a capital at Pataliputra; Assam Province (Prime Minister Muhammed Saadulah, with a capital at Shillong); and the United Provinces (Chief Minister Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan Chhatari, with a capital at Lucknow).
• The Act also established Aden, formerly a part of British India located on the Arabian peninsula and now part of the Republic of Yemen, as a Crown colony, with Sir Bernard Reilly as the first Governor.
• The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) became an independent branch of New Zealand's military forces, after having existed initially as a command within the New Zealand Army.
• Six German bombers of the Condor Legion carried out the bombing of Jaén, a Spanish city with no legitimate military value or anti-aircraft defenses, and killed 159 civilians. In retaliation, the city administrators of the Spanish Republic government executed 128 Nationalist prisoners.
• The 36-story tall Time-Life Building, now called "1 Rockefeller Plaza", opened in Manhattan
• Born: Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India from 2007 to 2017, formerly India's Ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1995; in Calcutta, Province of Bengal, British India

April 2, 1937 (Friday)

• A sitdown strike began at the Hershey Chocolate factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It would only last for six days.
• Died: Jānis Buivids, 72, Latvian general

April 3, 1937 (Saturday)

• Manchukuan Prince Pujie and Japanese princess Hiro Saga were married in a simple Shinto ceremony in Tokyo.

April 4, 1937 (Sunday)

• Byron Nelson won the fourth annual Masters Tournament with a score of 283 strokes in 72 holes; Ralph Guldahl finished second with 285.
• Died: Charles Henry Smyth, Jr., 71, American geologist

April 5, 1937 (Monday)

• The first postage stamps bearing the face of Adolf Hitler went on sale in Germany to commemorate the Führer's 48th birthday.
• The French liner Normandie crossed the Atlantic Ocean in record time, with an average speed of 30.98 knots (57.37 km/h; 35.65 mph).
• Born: U.S. Army General Colin Powell, the first African-American Secretary of State; in New York City (died of complications from COVID-19, 2021)

April 6, 1937 (Tuesday)

• Four U.S. Navy flyers were killed in a collision of two bomber planes during maneuvers off the coast of California.
• Born:
  • Merle Haggard, American country musician; in Oildale, California (d. 2016)
  • Billy Dee Williams, African-American singer and actor; in New York City
  • Peter Maivia (ring name for Fanene Pita Anderson), Samoan-American professional wrestler and grandfather of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson'; in American Samoa (died of cancer, 1982)

April 7, 1937 (Wednesday)

• The Pennsylvania chocolate workers' sitdown strike ended abruptly when at least 3,000 people— other Hershey employees, workers at neighboring dairies affected by the strike, and local residents—arrived at the factory and gave the strikers until 1:00 to leave the factory or to be forcibly evicted. When the deadline arrived with no exit, the strikebreaking group entered the factory with bats, clubs and hammers and beat several people, with the worst assault on three union organizers. As 800,000 lbs of milk daily was destroyed as a result of the strike, farmers armed with sticks and clubs assaulted the strikers, many of whom were taken to hospitals.
• Born: Graeme Davies, New Zealand engineer and academic known for establishing the Higher Education Funding Council for England; in Auckland (d. 2022)

April 8, 1937 (Thursday)

• Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg retracted his announcement of February 14 and said that the Habsburg monarchy could not be restored in the foreseeable future due to the tense international situation.
• The Oshawa Strike began in Canada when 4,000 General Motors workers walked off the job at the GM factory in Oshawa, Ontario.
• Born: Seymour Hersh, American investigative journalist and author; in Chicago

April 9, 1937 (Friday)

• The Kamikaze became the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly from Japan to Europe, as pilot Masaaki Iinuma and navigator Kenji Tsukagoshi arrived in London 51 hours and 17 minutes after departing from Tokyo.
• Born: Valerie Singleton, English television and radio presenter, known for the series Blue Peter and The Money Programme; in Hitchin, Hertfordshire
• Died: Albert Paine, 75, American author and biographer

April 10, 1937 (Saturday)

• British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin announced that he would soon be retiring.
• Born: Bella Akhmadulina, Soviet Russian poet; in Moscow (d. 2010)
• Died: Ralph Ince, 50, American actor, director and screenwriter, was killed in an auto accident when his wife crashed the car in which he was riding into an iron pole in London's Kensington district.

April 11, 1937 (Sunday)

• The British cabinet held a rare Sunday meeting in which it decided to afford the fullest protection to British shipping outside the three-mile limit in northern Spanish waters. This was understood to include authorizing the Royal Navy to open fire on any Spanish vessels interfering with British cargo ships.
• The Junkers Ju 89 prototype had its first flight, although it never entered production.

April 12, 1937 (Monday)

Whittle's first jet engine, on display at the Science Museum, London

• British engineer Frank Whittle and his team successfully tested a prototype jet engine, the Power Jets W.1, at his factory in Rugby, Warwickshire.
• The U.S. Supreme Court decided National Labor Relations Board v Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, ruling 5 to 4 that the U.S. Congress had the power under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution to regulate labor relations within a particular U.S. state for industries that impacted interstate commerce, even if only indirectly. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes wrote the majority opinion, stating that "Employees have as clear a right to organize and select their representatives for lawful purposes as the respondent has to organize its business and select its own officers and agents," and added that "Although activities may be intrastate in character when separately considered," the federal government could regulate them "if they have such a close and substantial relation to interstate commerce that their control is essential or appropriate to protect that commerce from burdens and obstructions."

April 13, 1937 (Tuesday)

• The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was launched.
• Born: Stan Stasiak, Canadian professional wrestler; in Arvida, Quebec (d. 1997)

April 14, 1937 (Wednesday)

• Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn forced two of his cabinet ministers to resign for opposing his handling of the Oshawa Strike.
• The musical stage comedy Babes in Arms. with music and lyrics by the team of Rodgers and Hart opened at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway. The show spawned several hit songs including "My Funny Valentine" and "The Lady is a Tramp".
• Died: Ned Hanlon, 79, American baseball player and manager, 1996 inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame, known for his innovations during his managerial career from 1899 to 1907, and for winning the National League pennant three consecutive years managing the NL Baltimore Orioles (1894, 1895, and 1896) and two consecutive years for the Brooklyn Superbas (1899 and 1900)

April 15, 1937 (Thursday)

• The Detroit Red Wings defeated the New York Rangers 3-0 to win the Stanley Cup, three games to two.
• Born: Robert W. Gore, American inventor and businessman best known for adapting polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to create the synthetic fabric Gore-Tex; in Salt Lake City (d. 2020)

April 16, 1937 (Friday)

• The Battle of Pozoblanco ended in Spain in a Republican victory after a six-week siege by the rebel Nationalist forces.
• Born: George "The Animal" Steele, American professional wrestler; in Detroit (d. 2017)

April 17, 1937 (Saturday)

• The Warner Bros. cartoon character of Daffy Duck was introduced, making his first appearance in the Porky Pig animated short film Porky's Duck Hunt.
• Born:
  • Don Buchla, American musician and engineer who invented a musical synthesizer independently of Robert Moog; in South Gate, California (d. 2016)
  • Ferdinand Piëch, Austrian business magnate; in Vienna (d. 2019)

April 18, 1937 (Sunday)

• Ontario's Premier Hepburn threatened to pass legislation to keep the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) out of Ontario, saying of CIO President John L. Lewis that "he and his gang will never get their greedy paws on Ontario as long as I'm prime minister."
• Born:
  • Jan Kaplický, Czechoslovakian architect; in Prague
  • Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Soviet Russian actress; in Moscow
  • Teddy Taylor, Scottish politician; in Glasgow (d. 2017)
• Died: Julia Nussenbaum, 25, American violinist who performed professionally under the name "Tania Lubova", was beaten to death with a hammer by her booking agent, Mischa Rosenbaum.

April 19, 1937 (Monday)

• Generalissimo Francisco Franco unified the Falangists and Carlists into a single party called the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista.
• Construction of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was completed.
• The League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee agreed to establish patrols of Spain's coasts to determine the destination of vessels, but not to carry out search and seizure operations. Germany and Italy were to monitor Republican ships while Britain and France would monitor the Nationalists. This scheme proved to be ineffective since the Germans could use ships flying the Panamanian or Liberian flags and unload their cargo in Portugal with the complicity of authorities there.
• Anthony Eden told the British House of Commons that the government would investigate reports that poison gas had been shipped from Germany to Spain.
• Walter Young of Canada won the Boston Marathon.
• Born: Joseph Estrada, President of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001; in Tondo, Manila
• Died:
  • Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington, 81, English art critic, politician and mountaineer
  • William Morton Wheeler, 72, American entomologist, myrmecologist and Harvard professor

April 20, 1937 (Tuesday)

• On Budget Day in the United Kingdom, Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain raised income and business taxes to achieve a small projected surplus of £282,000.
• In Berlin, Adolf Hitler reviewed 14,000 troops parading in honour of his 48th birthday. Albert Speer presented Hitler with renderings and a first model of the Volkshalle.
• The Jewish organization B'nai B'rith was banned in Nazi Germany on accusations that its individual members were spreading "communist propaganda".
• Gee Walker of the Detroit Tigers hit for the cycle during a 4-3 win over the Cleveland Indians. He is the only player to ever hit for the cycle on Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season.
• The drama film A Star Is Born, starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
• Born: George Takei, American actor and activist best known for Star Trek and for the film The Green Berets; in Los Angeles

April 21, 1937 (Wednesday)

• A labor strike against six factories of the Remington Rand typewriter company by the Council of Office Equipment Workers labor union, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, ended after 11 months when union members approved a settlement allowing them to return to their jobs..
• Died: Saima Harmaja, 23, Finnish poet and writer, died of tuberculosis.

April 22, 1937 (Thursday)

• Italian premier Benito Mussolini hosted Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg in Venice. Mussolini explained that since the Rome-Berlin Axis had been formed, Schuschnigg could no longer count on Italian military support if Hitler made a move against Austria.
• Born:
  • Jack Nicholson, American film actor and winner of three Academy Awards for Best Actor, including for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; in Neptune City, New Jersey
  • Jack Nitzsche, American film score composer known for the original music in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; in Chicago (d. 2000)
• Died: Arthur Edmund Carewe, 52, Armenian-American actor

April 23, 1937 (Friday)

• The Oshawa Strike ended in Canada when General Motors gave in to most of the strikers' demands, though the company still refused to recognize the United Automobile Workers union.
• The Madrid Defense Council was dissolved.
• In Hungary, Ferenc Szálasi was sentenced to three months in prison and prohibited from holding office for three years after being convicted for inciting people against the state as well as against Jews.
• Roosevelt Stadium opened in Jersey City, New Jersey.

April 24, 1937 (Saturday)

• Britain and France allowed Belgium to withdraw from the security obligations of the Locarno Treaties.
• Nationalist-controlled parts of Spain adopted the Roman salute. except in the Spanish armed forces.
• The BBC Television program For the Children first aired.
• Died: Lucy Beaumont, 63, English actress

April 25, 1937 (Sunday)

• The Soviet Union announced the completion of all goals of the five-year plan nine months to a year ahead of schedule. The announcement came despite numerous articles in the state-controlled press stating that many branches of the plan were lagging behind.
• Died: Michał Drzymała, 79, Polish folk hero

April 26, 1937 (Monday)

• The German Condor Legion carried out the destructive aerial bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica.

April 27, 1937 (Tuesday)

• The first social security payments were made in the United States under the Social Security Act of 1935.
• Wallis Simpson's divorce from her second husband, U.S.-born British shipbroker Ernest Simpson, became permanent when the mandatory six months elapsed after the divorce decree was issued. The former Mrs. Simpson was now free to marry again and made plans to marry the former King Edward VIII, who had become the Duke of Windsor.
• Born:
  • Sandy Dennis, American stage and film actress, winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1966 for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Tony Awards for Best Featured Actress and Best Actress; in Hastings, Nebraska (d. 1992)
  • Robin Eames, Northern Irish Anglican primate and Archbishop of Armagh; in Belfast
• Died: Antonio Gramsci, 46, Italian Marxist politician and former leader of the Italian Communist Party, died after more than 10 years imprisonment.

April 28, 1937 (Wednesday)

• Spain's Nationalists, commanded by Francisco Franco, captured Durango and Guernica.
• Born: Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003; in Al-Awja, Kingdom of Iraq (executed 2006)

April 29, 1937 (Thursday)

• The Irish Brigade fighting in Spain on behalf of the Republican government announced that it was disbanding.
• The Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War claimed that Guernica had been destroyed by Communist demolition teams.
• Born: Jill Paton Walsh, British author; in London (d. 2020)
• Died:
  • Wallace Carothers, 41, American organic chemist credited with the invention of nylon in 1935, committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide.
  • Carmelo Delgado Delgado, 24, Puerto Rican political leader and a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, was executed by a firing squad after being captured by the Nationalists during the ongoing Battle of Madrid in the Spanish Civil War.
  • William Gillette, 83, American actor-manager and playwright known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes

April 30, 1937 (Friday)

• Women won the right to vote in the Philippines when a suffrage plebiscite passed with 90% approval.
• The Nationalist battleship España accidentally hit a naval mine laid by another Nationalist ship, and sank off Santander. All of the crew had been evacuated during the 75 minutes after the blast had occurred.